Article by: Dumisane Dube
The department of health announced that 2 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines manufactured at the Gqeberha plant in the Eastern Cape can no longer be administered.
This follows a decision by United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discard about 60 million doses made at Baltimore plant due to contamination.
Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said this will be a setback on the ongoing vaccination campaign.
He said the country is expecting about 300 000 covid-19 jabs.
“From our side as government, we are looking at best possible ways of how we can get vaccines in terms of availability,” said Kubayi- Ngubane.
She said as a department they are currently not under pressure with the vaccine registration and roll out.
“….But we do anticipate that once we open for phase 2B, we would be under pressure and we want to prepare for that,” she added.
According to the Acting Health Minister, they are currently in discussions with the J&J team and they will be meeting to see how they can increase the numbers of vaccines expected.
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